Декабря 13, 2017

MY BIZ: Trai is backing Net Neutrality all the way

30 Ноября 2017, 12:27 | Gerardo Harmon

TRAI Weighs in Favour of Net Neutrality, Proposes License Amendments

India's telecom regulator, on Tuesday, came out swinging in favour of the principle of net neutrality, proposing a set of recommendations that would restrict "any form of discrimination or interference" in the treatment of online content.

"No one owns the Internet, so it should be open and accessible to everyone".

When asked to comment on the US Federal Communications Commission proposal to roll back net neutrality rules of 2015, Sharma said Trai has kept the Indian context in mind while framing its recommendations.

In its recommendation order, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has indicated that these principles of non-discrimination and equal access can be brought into force with amendments to the license agreements that govern bodies which provide Internet services in India.

The recommendations follow a consultation process that lasted for over a year, after the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) sought TRAI's views on the issue in March 2016, with an aim to "finalise a viewpoint" on net neutrality. Even as telecom regulators around the globe are pushing the world towards a non-neutral internet, TRAI has been doing its bit to keep the internet free of discriminatory practices.

The regulator has also suggested exempting CDNs from the scope of net neutrality rules, arguing that CDNs add efficiency to the network by reducing latency, mitigating congestion and freeing up network capacity for other purposes. This means that cellular service providers who have their own content platform and are offering these services on their own network (content delivery networks) can charge differential pricing.

Further, Trai wants telecom operators to declare their traffic management practices as and when deployed and the impact it may have had on the users.

The recommendations that the regulator releases on Tuesday will assume significance, especially at a time when the USA plans to repeal its existing rules on net neutrality, which will essentially allow telecom companies in the United States to restrict broadband speeds and favour their own services if they want.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's headquarters in New Delhi.

Releasing its recommendations on "net neutrality", TRAI has explicitly stated that internet service providers can not in any form discriminate with content by putting restrictions on them - including blocking, slowing down or granting preferential speeds to certain content.

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